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Oct 30, 2016

Reversible Scarecrow/Snowman Sign

I think it's about time to take a break from house renovations and dive back into some arts and crafts. I've had this idea saved on my Pinterest board forever. Last fall we were in the midst of selling our house/packing everything up, so there wasn't an opportunity to make it, or to decorate at all for that matter. But this year I am bound and determined to make the house look festive through the fall and winter seasons.

Enter the double-sided (i.e. reversible) scarecrow & snowman sign. You have a sweet fall scarecrow sign, and then also have a jumpstart on winter decorations with the other side.

We even managed to get our pumpkins and decorative gourds in place for (Canadian) Thanksgiving. We found a local farm, just minutes from our house, that sells every possible size of pumpkin, squash, and miscellaneous gourd that you could want. They're all arranged by size/price, and the owners provide little red wagons to haul your choices around as you decide. How adorable does Tom look with the wagon?

My aunt provided the pie-sized pumpkin that is the star of our table centerpiece.

But back to the scarecrow/snowman sign. This project was so much fun. And cost nothing in new materials. I used scrap wood, plus paint and decorations that I already had on hand. I even grabbed some clippings from random plants and bushes on our property to add a natural touch.

I started with a 1"x4" board that I cut into three pieces - 20" each. I then used Gorilla Glue to attach them to each other and clamped it all together overnight. You could use a pocket hole jig (Kreg is my favourite) to screw them together, but since the boards are so thin, I didn't think it was worth it this time. Plus the brim for the "hat" is screwed on, which helps hold it all together.

Once the boards were glued, I cut two strips from a spare sheet of 1/8" plywood for the angled hat brim - 1½" x 16" each. I just played around until I found the angle I liked and screwed them into the sign with countersunk screws - one in each sign board section (six altogether).

I painted one side of the sign white with a black hat for the snowman, and the other is yellow with a brown hat for the scarecrow. I used poster paint - two coats for each section.

I started with the snowman face (because it was the easiest). I drew it in pencil on a piece of paper, erasing and correcting until I had exactly what I wanted. I flipped the paper over and held it up to a lampshade (you could also use a window in the daytime), and lightly traced the face on the other side of the page.

Back at the table, I went over the tracing again, pressing harder with the pencil this time. I then laid the page on the sign, tracing-side-down, and drew over my original sketch, pressing firmly. This transfers graphite from the back of the paper onto the sign so that you have an exact replica of your original drawing.

Then it was just a matter of filling in the features with paint. Once everything was dry I flipped the sign over to do the other side. Same drawing procedure as before. One final step: Give the sign an extra layer of protection against the weather with a couple of coats of matte spray lacquer.

With the painting all finished, I dug out all of my ribbon and crafting bits and pieces, plugged in my hot glue gun, threw on a movie, and got down to decorating the hats and bodies.

The focus of the scarecrow side was that big honkin' flower. What scarecrow doesn't have a floppy flower hat? I added some scraps of burlap and dried grasses from the yard.

The snowman side has bows made of sparkly blue snowflake ribbon and dried sprigs from the garden. My favourite bit is the piece of white glass I glued in the center of the bottom bow. It looks just like a piece of ice!

With the pumpkins from the farm and a potted mum, the front of the house is starting to look a little festive. Mr. Scarecrow fits right in. I can't wait until Mr. Snowman gets his chance, too.

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